32 things we learned in Week 14: Bears, Packers, Rams in NFC blender

• The Packers upended the Bears in one of several NFL Week 14 games that proved highly consequential to the NFC playoff picture.
• Josh Allen and the Bills caught fire late against the Bengals in the snow, all but extinguishing Cincinnati’s postseason hopes.
• The Jets extended their postseason drought to 15 seasons as they joined a growing list of teams already eliminated from playoff contention.

The 32 things we learned from Week 14 of the 2025 NFL season:

1. The number of times Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow has lost to the Buffalo Bills – his first defeat coming Sunday in snowy Western New York in what basically seems like a fatal setback for the Stripes.

2. The number of fourth-quarter interceptions served up by Burrow in what was otherwise another captivating performance in his second game back from turf toe surgery. Burrow’s picks flipped a 28-25 Cincy lead into an 11-point deficit from which the Bengals never recovered (and may never recover). It also snapped his personal streak of consecutive starts won at eight.

3. The number of consecutive seasons the Bengals have missed the playoffs – assuming this one is their latest failure since dropping the 2022 AFC championship game. Burrow returned earlier than anticipated in a bid to spark a belated drive to the top of the AFC North. But the Bengals (4-9) now have a roughly 1% shot of qualifying for postseason, per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats.

4. This is an appropriate time to shout out Bills QB Josh Allen, the reigning league MVP. He’s now 3-0 this season against Burrow, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson. If he salvages a split next week against the New England Patriots’ Drake Maye, who’s trying to become the next NFL MVP, then maybe Allen has a legit shot at retaining the hardware.

5. The numbers don’t lie after all. Sunday, Allen become the first man in league annals with 50 games in which he’s produced a touchdown both with his arm and legs. And no one else has ever posted three separate seasons with 20 TD passes and 10 rushing TDs.

6. Yet Buffalo’s primary hero Sunday might have been CB Christian Benford, who had a sack of Burrow and a 63-yard pick-six that effectively changed the game’s complexion.

7. While Burrow has basically proven the still-undead Bengals were right to activate him amid their (very) longshot bid to reach the playoffs, the argument to shut down a vulnerable franchise quarterback was exemplified by the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels. He didn’t finish his team’s whitewashing at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings after appearing to reaggravate the injury to his left (non-throwing) elbow in what was effectively a meaningless game for the now-eliminated Commanders.

8. The number of consecutive losing seasons for the Atlanta Falcons following Sunday’s blowout loss at home to the Seattle Seahawks.

9. Atlanta was also officially eliminated from playoff contention, the Falcons to remain absent from the playoffs since their last appearance during the 2017 season.

10. The number of consecutive games the Indianapolis Colts have lost in Jacksonville, Sunday’s setback costing Indy a share of first place in the AFC South to the surging Jaguars.

11. Of course, the loss of injured QB Daniel Jones (Achilles) is what figures to crater what once seemed like it could be a surprisingly magical season for the Colts.

12. The Seattle Seahawks blasted the Falcons 37-9, recently acquired WR Rashid Shaheed a big reason. Though Shaheed isn’t one of the league’s more widely known players, the trade for him prior to last month’s deadline was expected to be an impactful one. He started delivering Sunday with four catches for 67 yards and a 100-yard TD off a kickoff return out of halftime that helped put the game away. Shaheed had four catches for 37 yards in his first four games with Seattle.

13. A week after their 26-0 loss at Seattle, the Vikings blanked the Commanders 31-0. Per NFL RedZone, it’s the first time since at least 1992 that a team has pitched a shutout the week after suffering one.

14. Minnesota orchestrated a second-quarter TD drive that consumed 12 minutes and 1 second, the longest in the league in four years.

15. The number of consecutive seasons the New York Jets have missed the playoffs after being officially eliminated Sunday.

16. The NYJ’s ignominious streak is not only the longest active one in the NFL but also in North America’s four major professional men’s team sports leagues.

17. But you’d known for weeks that the Jets were in the gutter. It just wasn’t until Sunday that they’d tried to obscure the sewage with manhole covers.

18. The Baltimore Ravens outrushed the Pittsburgh Steelers 217-34 on Sunday but still figured out a way to lose the game and their share of first place in the AFC North … though some questionable officiating decisions certainly didn’t help them. Still, it was the largest positive rushing differential for a losing team in three years.

19. The number of seasons Mike Tomlin has coached in Pittsburgh − and he’s now two wins shy of having a 19th consecutive campaign without a losing record … for his first-place Steelers. Sure you want to fire him, yinzers?

20. The number of sacks Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett now has – the first time he’s reached 20 in his nine-year career – after bagging Tennessee Titans rookie Cam Ward once Sunday.

21. Garrett now has four games to register the three additional sacks he needs to break the league’s single-season record of 22½, which is shared by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt.

22. Ironically, it was the first time this season Ward wasn’t sacked multiples times in a game. And though his Titans got a rare win, their second of 2025, Ward was largely outplayed by fellow rookie QB Shedeur Sanders.

23. We’ve managed to bury the lead here, folks. The NFC playoff picture is wiiiiiiild.

24. The Chicago Bears lost to their archrivals, the Green Bay Packers, Sunday at Lambeau Field – a defeat that dropped them the conference’s projected No. 1 seed all the way to No. 7, just one win ahead of the Detroit Lions, who are desperately trying to qualify for a third consecutive playoff trip.

25. Bears rookie coach Ben Johnson has pushed a lot of the right buttons in 2025. Taking digs at Pack coach Matt LaFleur at his introductory news conference probably wasn’t the right lever to pull.

26. Meanwhile, Green Bay’s win launched it from the projected sixth seed up to second, just a half-game behind the Los Angeles Rams, who currently sit atop the conference standings.

27. Of course, the Seahawks had that perch – for three hours – after proving much fiercer birds of prey than the Falcons. But Seattle was just keeping the top seat warm for the Rams, who reclaimed it a week after losing it in rainy Charlotte.

28. All of that NFC dominance – and the top-seeded Rams (10-3) are separated by a single game from the sixth-seeded San Francisco 49ers (9-4) and Bears (9-4) – is sandwiched around the NFC South, which is doing its traditional thing. After losing to the lowly New Orleans Saints, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-6) fell into a first-place tie with the Carolina Panthers … who were on their bye.

29.Tell us again why a home playoff game should be conferred on a team that can barely prevail to secure a bad division? The Bucs or Panthers should consider themselves lucky to be relevant in what’s otherwise a murderer’s row of a conference.

30. By comparison, the AFC is much less compelling – though it does appear the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots could fight over its top seed into Week 18. Who had that on their bingo card three months ago?

31. If the season ended today – it doesn’t – the Las Vegas Raiders would select atop the NFL draft … something they’ve only done once. And if you need a refresher, they blew it – selecting QB JaMarcus Russell, a colossal bust, first in 2007 ahead of players like Calvin Johnson, Joe Thomas, Adrian Peterson, Darrelle Revis, Patrick Willis, Marshawn Lynch and others.

32. As for the NFL’s famed parity model? Not this year. With a month left to go in the regular season, nine of the league’s teams (28%) have already been eliminated from postseason consideration.